Music turned beyond borders, needless today, music is an integral part of everyone's lives. We often have a different set of playlists for everything that we do. Party playlist, house party playlist, travel playlist, gym playlist, and happy and sad playlist. For every mood we have a song, imagine you have created your own playlist and one fine day find out that half of the songs have gone.
This is exactly what happened with the music streaming app Spotify. That's because hundreds of songs from some of India's biggest blockbusters have vanished from the app. All the songs under the Zee label were removed from Spotify on March 14. Music fanatics reported this issue on social media when they woke up to find their favourite songs are missing.
Here is the list of songs that are no longer available
Malhari from Bajirao Mastani, Kala Chashma from Baar Baar Dekho, Apna Bana Le from the movie Bhediya, songs from Sushant Singh Rajput- Sara Ali Khan starrer Kedarnath, Maiyya Mainu from Jersey, Makhna from Drive, Zaalima from Raees, Veere Di Wedding, songs of Gully Boy, Kalank among other favourites were among the deleted hits.
Reason
Reportedly, Spotify was forced to remove the entire catalogue of Bollywood songs from Zee Music Company after negotiations for a renewal of their licensing agreement failed to go through last week.
According to a report on Billboard, the music app said in a statement, "Spotify and Zee Music have been unable to reach a licensing agreement. Throughout these negotiations, Spotify has tried to find creative ways to strike a deal with Zee Music and will continue our good faith negotiations in hopes of finding a mutually agreeable solution soon."
The music app has a disclaimer on its website that it doesn't provide access to all the music and podcasts in the world. Like the streaming platform Netflix, it negotiates to license deals with publishers and rights owners so their music tracks can be played online.
As per reports, Zee Music also did not renew the licensing agreement with the music app Gaana and cut ties with them in 2022. A few months later, Gaana became a subscription-only service.
Fans and celebrities take to Twitter and express their displeasure
Singer Armaan Malik also took to Twitter and expressed his displeasure. He wrote, "Unfortunately, we ain't the rights owners of our Bollywood songs, so no matter what, we can only hope that the issue is resolved at the earliest btwn the label & the platform."
I know you’re sad my songs Theher Ja, Sau Aasmaan & a few more aren’t on Spotify anymore. Im sad too ?
— ARMAAN MALIK (@ArmaanMalik22) March 22, 2023
Unfortunately we ain’t the rights owners of our Bollywood songs, so no matter what we can only hope that the issue is resolved at the earliest btwn the label & the platform.
A user wrote, "Another reminder that while streaming can be great and has an important role, it should NEVER be regarded as a replacement for a physical collection #Spotify #Bollywood. Spotify removing all my bollywood bangers is a crime."
Gyms with NO MUSIC > gyms with bad music
— Abhi and Niyu (@abhiandniyu) March 19, 2023
Meanwhile, Zee Music has 93.6 million subscribers on YouTube. It comes in second to T-Series, which has 239 million subscribers on YouTube.